Narcoti - / Cure, 1895

CommentaryThis ›Narcoti Chemical Company of Springfield/Mass.‹ poster appeared in connection with a scientific study from 1890, the first to show that smoking was bad for you, which at the time meant more allegedly negative influences on morals and manners. Naturally, this opened up a new business field. Bradley presented tobacco as a demon which you could, however, master within a few days – with the right product, of course. This early anti-smoking campaign in the USA reached a first highpoint in 1899 with the founding of the ›Anti-Cigarette League of America‹ by the evangelist activist Lucy Page Gaston. Its success was limited. While the League grew rapidly (300,000 members in 1901) and sought to ban smoking in 15 states by law or though taxation between 1895 and 1921, all their efforts could not put a stop to tobacco’s triumphal march. While only 2% of the population smoked in 1900, by 1930 this had increased to 40%. A small machine invented by the tobacco magnate James B. Duke (1856-1925) allowing you to roll your own cigarettes made their taxation ineffective (loose tobacco was not taxed).

This ›Narcoti Chemical Company of Springfield/Mass.‹ poster appeared in connection with a scientific study from 1890, the first to show that smoking was bad for you, which at the time meant more allegedly negative influences on morals and manners. Naturally, this opened up a new business field. Bradley presented tobacco as a demon which you could, however, master within a few days – with the right product, of course. This early anti-smoking campaign in the USA reached a first highpoint in 1899 with the founding of the ›Anti-Cigarette League of America‹ by the evangelist activist Lucy Page Gaston. Its success was limited. While the League grew rapidly (300,000 members in 1901) and sought to ban smoking in 15 states by law or though taxation between 1895 and 1921, all their efforts could not put a stop to tobacco’s triumphal march. While only 2% of the population smoked in 1900, by 1930 this had increased to 40%. A small machine invented by the tobacco magnate James B. Duke (1856-1925) allowing you to roll your own cigarettes made their taxation ineffective (loose tobacco was not taxed).